Mock The Week
Mock the Week is a British topical panel game, hosted by Dara Ó Briain. It is made by independent production company Angst Productions and made its debut on BBC 2 on 5 June 2005. The programme returned for a seventh series on 9 July 2009. Episodes regularly attract 3.5 million viewers. Created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, the same people responsible for the comedy game show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Mock the Week is usually described as a cross between Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Have I Got News for You. The show's theme music is "News of the World" by The Jam. Panel , Dara Ó Briain, Hugh Dennis and Frankie Boyle]] The show is hosted by Dara Ó Briain and on the panel are two teams of three, with Frankie Boyle and Hugh Dennis on one side and Russell Howard and Andy Parsons on the other (with one member of each team being a guest panellist each week). Andy Parsons has been a regular on the show since series three (series 1 and 2 featured Rory Bremner and two guest panellists), with Russell Howard also becoming a regular from series 4. Both had been very frequent panellists prior to becoming regulars. Next to Dennis's team is the Press Pit, which is a large desk where they play a round called Between the Lines. Next to this is the Performance Area which is a much larger area with a large TV monitor, normally used for stand-up challenges such as Dating Videos and Scenes We'd Like To See. Although Hugh Dennis is in effect a team captain (and is sometimes referred to as such in publicity material), such a distinction is never made on the programme itself. For the first two series Rory Bremner was considered to be the other team captain, however he left the show after series 3 and was replaced by a different guest panelist each week. Although each episode has a winning and losing team, the entire show exists mainly to provide starting points for improvised comedy routines rather than to function as a serious competition. Specific scores are never referred to, and it has been stated by Dara comically that the scoring system is in fact "a load of bollocks". Indeed, after each round, the number of points awarded to a team is never stated; instead Dara just gives "the points" to the team he judges should receive them. It is common for the winner of a round to be contested and for Dara Ó Briain to occasionally end rounds by declaring simply "points for everyone". Regular games , Russell Howard, Dara Ó Briain, Hugh Dennis and Frankie Boyle]] These rounds appear in most shows. Headliners This round is played by all panelists. In this round, a photo of someone famous in the news is given, along with the initial letters of a newspaper headline. The panelists have to eventually guess what the headline is, though they initially come in with comic suggestions until Dara prompts someone to give the correct answer. Spinning The News This game takes place in the Performance Area. In the first and second series all six players took part, but from the third series onwards, only four take part. On the screen is a Random News Generator with several topics on it. A topic is picked at random, and one of the players has to perform a piece about the topic it has landed on. Until series three, Dara would judge whether the audience had laughed enough at the routine, and decide whether or not the person was allowed to sit down. The first team to have all their players sat down would win. If one player from each team was left standing, sudden death would come into effect. A random topic was picked and both players had to talk about it. The team of whoever got the biggest laugh would win. Since series three, this has been removed, and the biggest laugh now decides the winner. Since series two, Dara has changed the name of this round each episode, sometimes as a reference to a recent event. Examples of this include Dara's Supercasino: Make-a-Joke Roulette in the week that the Manchester Supercasino was announced, and the Four By One Joke Relay with which jokes are judged upon difficulty and artistic merit, during the Beijing Olympic Games, as well as the NHS Revolving Door of Happiness If this is the answer, what is the question? This round is played by everyone. A choice of six categories is given to one of the guests, covering topics such as sport, health, home affairs, world news, and the environment. Once they have chosen a topic, an answer is revealed and all players have to guess what the question was. This alternates being the first round with "Headlines", and similarly to that round they begin by thinking of comical questions before concluding with the real answer. Scenes We'd Like To See This is the final round in the show and takes place in the Performance Area. All players participate in this round. The screen presents an unlikely scenario, for example "Things the Queen didn't say in her Christmas speech" or "Unlikely lines from the final Harry Potter book", and the players must act out what would happen if it did ever occur. Players participate by taking turns walking to the microphone and acting out the scenario, however the turn taking often evolves into a game itself, with the contestants competing to reach the microphone first. One of the most notable situations was when Ed Byrne stole the microphone in series 4. Optional games These games appear in some episodes, but not all. Between The Lines This game takes place in the Press Pit and for the first two series was played by Hugh Dennis, Rory Bremner and Frankie Boyle. In this round, Rory/Frankie impersonates someone in the news that week giving a press conference. The other player (Hugh) tells us what the person is really saying. Points are usually awarded to both players. Newsreel This round is played by two players, one from each side. In a number of cases, it has only been Hugh Dennis playing and acting out many voices, e.g. David Cameron and Boris Johnson. In this round, a piece of news footage is played with no sound. The players have to act out what each person is saying, although this usually bears no relation to what was actually occurring. The best individual performance wins. Recently, this round was replaced with one called Royal Commentary with only Dennis playing, where he provides a commentary on a royal event. What On Earth The panel are shown a picture linked to a world news event before trying to figure out what on earth was happening. So far the round has only featured as an out-take during the clip shows of series 5 and 6. On both occasions, Dara has joked sarcastically about its obscurity. Past games These rounds have so far only been played in series 1 and 2. Most of them were dropped because they involved impressions, but Rory Bremner had left after series 2. However Bombshell Phone Calls did make one appearance in the first episode of series 3. Dating videos This game takes place in the Performance Area. Normally two rounds are played, with one player from each team performing in the Performance Area. The player is given the name of a famous person and has to record a lonely hearts ad in the style of that person. The other players have to try and guess who they are. Ask the politicians This was Mock the Week's tribute to the current affairs program Question Time. Normally two or three players went into the studio audience whilst the others stayed in their seats. Dara acted as the host of the show, with the other players (normally the team captains and one or two other guests) playing politicians. Former team captain Rory Bremner was normally a famous Labour politician, and Hugh was normally a Conservative spokesman. The players in the audience would question the rest of the panel, and they had to answer the questions given to them in role. Guest Al Murray has appeared twice as "The Voice of the Silent Majority," where he adopted a populist persona, normally xenophobic and with a harsh line on crime. He often used amusing phrases such as "speaking for the people who would have shot that burglar a third time..."; this was recognisable as an allusion to his famous Pub Landlord character. Prime Minister's questions This round was played by all the players. Dara would take the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rory would play the Prime Minister and the rest of his team would be front-bench MPs. Hugh's team would play the opposition party. Teams were given a rather trivial news story to debate, but would treat it as if it was the heavyweight issue of the day. Bombshell phone calls This round was played by two players, one from each side. The two players (normally Rory and Frankie) played famous people having a telephone conversation. During the conversation, one of them would drop a bombshell to which the other player had to react. Recurring jokes * The Wheel of News round is often renamed randomly, though sometimes following a theme that had been present in the previous round or news of that week, e.g. "Harry Potter and the Wheel of News" or "Danger! Danger! Subatomic Joke Collider!" * There was a running commentary in earlier series regarding Prince Charles allegedly not being the father of Prince Harry. * Hugh Dennis responds to many "Scenes We'd Like To See" with advertising slogans such as "Are you paying too much for car insurance?" or (in the topic, "Bad things to say when leading troops into battle") "Have you been injured at work?" He also refers to insurance companies several times throughout the shows. Similarly, there have been numerous instances of (usually wholly unlikely) people or events being described as "sponsored by Powergen" with examples including the Queen and the Live Earth concert. Also, in Scenes We'd Like To See, Dennis once said "I'm Saving Private Ryan — Money on His Car Insurance". * Dennis frequently impersonates Jimmy Savile, namechecking the group Showaddywaddy. Frankie Boyle made light of this joke in series 6, during Scenes We'd Like To See on the topic of "Things You Wouldn't Hear On The Radio". He said, "In that episode of the Hugh Dennis Story, Hugh Dennis was played by Bruce Willis, Steve Punt was played by Hugh Dennis, and the band was Showaddywaddy." * Frankie Boyle frequently makes derogatory comments about Scotland, particularly the women of Dundee, and how his home city Glasgow is stuck in the 19th century. In Scenes We'd Like To See on the topic of "the worst thing to hear on holiday", Boyle said "Welcome to Scotland". In another episode, he has said "Upon arriving in Glasgow, passengers are reminded to set their watches back 25 years" and in another episode he said "we have landed in the 19th century, No it's Glasgow 2007" * There are many references (particularly by Parsons and Ó Briain) to the British people's love of orderly queuing. * Dennis also makes frequent jokes about Chlamydia, usually when referring to a character in a film or book. Boyle has a similar ongoing joke with HIV (for example, "I'm afraid the only thing you'll be fighting for some time Bond, is HIV"). * There are also many jokes about Abu Hamza al-Masri, the extremist Islamic preacher, often about his hook for a hand or eyepatch. * Dennis on more than one occasion has made a joke involving Imhotep. * In series 6, Frankie Boyle frequently derides Kerry Katona about how many children she has and her Iceland adverts in his answers, name-checking her almost every show, up to the point where Dara Ó Briain, got annoyed with it. In one Scenes We'd Like To See, Michael McIntyre also derided Katona and Iceland by saying "poor and too lazy to cook? That's why mums shop at Iceland". * Ed Byrne often pokes fun at host (and old friend) Ó Briain. In one instance he points out that the fact that his hair makes up for all the comparable successes he has had in his career. In Scenes We'd Like to See he also made reference to Ó Briain's supposed nickname Dobby, due to his resemblance to the elf from Harry Potter. He also claimed that Ó Briain's last name was made up, and suggested he change it to Ra-Boom-Dee-Ay. * The newest running gag is Parsons mocking Ireland's poor Olympic performances, much to Ó Briain's annoyance. An example of this is in one Scenes We'd Like To See, the topic being 'Things you wouldn't hear at the Olympics' in which Parsons comes in and says "And it's a gold for Ireland!" (For the remainder of the round, Ó Briain would not let Parsons speak, buzzing him every time he tried.) * There are frequent inside jokes about bananas. This is the only joke where a prop (an actual banana) is used. * Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell was mocked about his old age. Dennis remarked that he first came to England in "a Viking invasion" and took part in the original Olympic Games and was "pipped in the dash by a winged horse". * As an inside joke, Ó Briain has to remind Boyle and Dennis "To make jokes that we can actually broadcast." * Another inside joke shows that Parsons occasionaly mispronouces words. Such as "Those racial supereminists" DVD releases A DVD, Mock the Week: Too Hot For TV was released on 26 November 2007. It contains almost three hours of material, including three extended episodes from series five, containing scenes that were considered too rude for broadcast. Episodes and guest appearances * Appearances The following have appeared on the show as a guest: 9 appearances *Ed Byrne *David Mitchell 7 appearances *John Oliver *Mark Watson *Gina Yashere 6 appearances *Jo Brand *Andy Parsons* 5 appearances *Michael McIntyre 4 appearances *Jo Caulfield *Russell Howard* 3 appearances *Adam Hills 2 appearances *Jon Culshaw *Jeremy Hardy *Rhod Gilbert *Lauren Laverne *Fred MacAulay *Al Murray *Ben Norris *Lucy Porter *Greg Proops *Linda Smith *Mark Steel *Ian Stone 1 appearance *Fiona Allen *Clive Anderson *Adam Bloom *Alun Cochrane *Greg Davies *Stewart Francis *Robin Ince *Stephen K. Amos *Shappi Khorsandi *Zoe Lyons *Sue Perkins *Jan Ravens *Jimmy Tingle *Sandi Toksvig *Danielle Ward * before joining as a regular. External links *Official Mock The Week website *[http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/Mock_the_Week Mock the Week] at UKGameshows.com